Tucked away on the very last page of a recent House version of the Education Savings Account (ESA) bill are 28 words: “A local board of education does not have authority to assert a cause of action, or intervene in any cause of action, challenging the legality of this part.”

Cast iron carries the weight of history. It remains largely made the same way it has been for hundreds of years, and short of violent neglect, cast iron cookware should last for generations, which makes the story of Lodge Manufacturing in South Pittsburg all the more incredible.

Car shoppers often spend too much. But the culprit isn’t necessarily shady dealership practices, deceptive advertising or plain old bad luck. Instead, many simply end up buying more vehicle than they actually need.

As conferences go, this one was successful. Work was accomplished with minimal dissent, officers were elected and consensus was reached. Afterward, in elegant surroundings, you dined together on artfully presented food in taste-combinations you never imagined and desserts that made you want seconds.

Americans are slipping ever deeper into hock. To cope, many people turn to debt consolidation loans, cash-out mortgage refinancing and retirement plan loans that promise relief but could leave them worse off.

NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee lawmakers on Wednesday voted to ship Republican Gov. Bill Lee a negotiated version of his proposal to divert more tax money to private education, which will give participating families debit cards worth up to $7,300 in state education money each year. The bill narrowly emerged from fights over cost estimates and provisions that could exclude families in the U.S. illegally.

FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — German automaker Volkswagen saw its profit slip in the first quarter as the company set aside 1 billion euros ($1.1 billion) for legal risks related to its 2015 diesel scandal.

PALO ALTO, Calif. (AP) — A week after revealing a huge first quarter loss and the need to raise cash, Tesla is doing just that with CEO Elon Musk buying $10 million in new shares being offered as part of a stock and debt offering that could raise more than $2 billion.

LONDON (AP) — The U.K. should eliminate almost all greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 by rapidly adopting policies that will change everything from the way people heat their homes to what they eat, an independent committee that advises the British government on climate change recommended Thursday.

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. productivity grew at a solid 3.6% rate in the first three months of this year, the strongest quarterly gain in more than four years and a hopeful sign that a long stretch of weak productivity gains may be coming to an end.

Beyond Meat is ready for more. The El Segundo, California-based maker of plant-based burgers and sausages will make its debut on the Nasdaq stock exchange Thursday. It's the first pure-play maker of vegan "meat" to go public, according to Renaissance Capital, which researches and tracks IPOs.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Attorney General William Barr skipped a House hearing Thursday on special counsel Robert Mueller's Trump-Russia report, escalating an already acrimonious battle between Democrats and President Donald Trump's Justice Department.

LONDON (AP) — WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange told a London court on Thursday that he would not agree to be extradited to the United States, where he is accused of conspiring to hack into a Pentagon computer.

NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee lawmakers tasked with negotiating school voucher-like legislation have settled on a compromise to allow more taxpayer dollars that can be used to pay for private schools and other expenses.

NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee lawmakers have signed off on a $38.5 billion spending plan for the upcoming fiscal year, which includes funding for providing Medicaid assistance to disabled children, pay hikes for correctional officers and boosting the state's rainy day account.

NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee lawmakers on Tuesday spiked a proposal that would have allowed faith-based adoption agencies to refuse to place children with gay parents and other families because of their religious beliefs.

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — The Trump administration and several Republican-led states faced a midnight Wednesday deadline for filing papers with a federal appeals panel reviewing a lower court ruling that former President Barack Obama's health care law is unconstitutional.

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. government searches of travelers' cellphones and laptops at airports and border crossings nearly quadrupled since 2015 and were being done for reasons beyond customs and immigration enforcement, according to papers filed Tuesday in a federal lawsuit that claims scouring the electronic devices without a warrant is unconstitutional.

NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks gave up some early gains and ended broadly lower after the head of the Federal Reserve appeared to play down the possibility of an interest rate cut this year, something some investors had been hoping for.

NEW YORK (AP) — As Small Business Week approaches, the nation's smallest companies in the aggregate are by many accounts doing fairly well. They're not, however, thriving en masse in direct response to Trump administration and Republican policies.

BERLIN (AP) — Higher salaries, better working conditions, maternity leave, minimum wage and an end to discrimination against temporary or foreign workers: These were among the concerns as hundreds of thousands of union members and labor activists rallied around the world to mark May Day.

BEIJING (AP) — American and Chinese trade negotiators met Wednesday for talks on their bruising tariff war after Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said the U.S. side might be moving toward a decision on whether to make a deal with Beijing.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Private tensions between Justice Department leaders and Robert Mueller's team broke into public view in extraordinary fashion Wednesday as Attorney General William Barr pushed back at the special counsel's "snitty" complaints over his handling of the Trump-Russia investigation report.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The fear was persistent. As the Russia investigation heated up and threatened to shadow Donald Trump's presidency, he became increasingly concerned. But the portrait painted by special counsel Robert Mueller is not of a president who believed he or anyone on his campaign colluded with Russians to interfere in the 2016 election.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration is asking Congress for an additional $4.5 billion in emergency spending for border security as the administration contends with a surge of Central American migrants at the southern border.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Democrats are stinging from a trio of high-profile failures to recruit candidates who could help reclaim the majority, including Stacey Abrams' announcement that she would pass up a U.S. Senate run in Georgia.

NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee plans to let legislation to allow sports betting become law without his signature, putting a state that has largely shied from expanding gambling in position to become the first to offer an online-only sportsbook.

NASHVILLE (AP) — More than half of Republican Gov. Bill Lee's newly appointed cabinet members, including his education czar and Tennessee's Medicaid chief, didn't submit applications or provide any documents outlining why they deserved the jobs he gave them.

NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee will soon decide the fate of Republican-backed voter legislation that won final legislative approval Monday, with some critics arguing the measure is intended to suppress efforts to register minorities and other voters.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg kicked off the company's annual F8 developer conference Tuesday with more details about his new "privacy-focused" vision for the social network — including a major redesign of Facebook's app and website that is built around letting people connect with small groups.

WASHINGTON (AP) — White House adviser Kellyanne Conway says the president is still backing conservative commentator Stephen Moore for a spot on the Federal Reserve board, and she adds she's not concerned about some of his controversial comments on women.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Attorney General William Barr on Wednesday will face lawmakers' questions for the first time since releasing special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia report, in what promises to be a dramatic showdown as he defends his actions before Democrats who accuse him of spinning the investigation's findings in President Donald Trump's favor.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump and Democratic congressional leaders agreed Tuesday to work together on a $2 trillion infrastructure package — but put off for later the difficult question of how to pay for it.

WASHINGTON (AP) — House intelligence committee Chairman Adam Schiff is making a criminal referral to the Justice Department for the founder of the security firm Blackwater, alleging he lied to his committee in 2017.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump, his family and the Trump Organization filed a lawsuit against Deutsche Bank and Capital One in an attempt to block congressional subpoenas seeking their banking and financial records.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is proposing charging asylum seekers a fee to process their applications as he continues to try to crack down on the surge of Central American migrants seeking to cross into the U.S.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein submitted his resignation Monday after a two-year run defined by his appointment of a special counsel to investigate connections between President Donald Trump's campaign and Russia.

NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee has steadily reduced his availability for media questions during his first 100 days in office and instead has increased his use of photo-only events throughout the state.

The CEO of Boeing defended the company's safety record and declined to take any more than partial blame for two deadly crashes of its best-selling plane even while saying Monday that the company has nearly finished an update that "will make the airplane even safer."

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — Music streaming service Spotify says its paying subscribers have reached 100 million for the first time, up 32% on the year and almost twice the latest figures for Apple Music.

A survey of corporate economists predicts the economy will expand over the next year, although the pace of growth will decline and employers are facing pressure to raise wages, spend more on worker training and automate tasks because of the low unemployment rate.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Political uncertainty and volatile oil prices are weighing heavily on economic growth in the Middle East this year, according to a new report released Monday by the International Monetary Fund.

NEW YORK (AP) — The universe belongs to Marvel. "Avengers: Endgame" shattered the record for biggest opening weekend with an estimated $350 million in ticket sales domestically and $1.2 billion globally, reaching a new pinnacle in the blockbuster era that the comic-book studio has come to dominate.

In 2007, the U.S. government made a promise to public service workers: Make 10 years of payments on their federal student loans and any remaining debt would be erased. But officials have largely failed to deliver.

NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee on Thursday declared it was a "historic day" after the Republican's voucher-like bill advanced out of the Senate despite being drastically scaled back and directly at odds with the House version of his legislation.

NASHVILLE (AP) — A Tennessee attorney has been sentenced to 92 months in prison for stealing more than $1.36 million from clients. The majority was from the daughter of a state trooper killed in the line of duty.

KNOXVILLE (AP) — Tennessee basketball coach Rick Barnes will make $26 million over the next five seasons as part of a hefty raise he will receive after speaking with UCLA about its coaching vacancy earlier this month.

LONDON (AP) — German carmaker Daimler endured a weak start to the year, echoing trouble at other major manufacturers, as a global economic slowdown weighed on sales, particularly in the big Chinese market.

TOKYO (AP) — Former Nissan Chairman Carlos Ghosn walked out of a Japanese detention center Thursday evening, his head held high, after paying 500 million yen ($4.5 million) in bail and winning a court rejection of an appeal from prosecutors.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Elon Musk and U.S. securities regulators have settled their dispute over the Tesla CEO's tweets, with Musk agreeing to having his future communications regarding the electric-car maker pre-approved by a company-employed expert.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. economy grew at a solid 3.2% annual rate in the first three months of the year, a far better outcome than expected, overcoming a host of headwinds including global weakness, rising trade tensions and a partial government shutdown.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Orders to U.S. factories for big-ticket manufactured goods rose 2.7% in March with a key category that tracks business investment decisions rising at the strongest pace in eight months.

LONDON (AP) — Environmental activists who have disrupted the British capital for 10 days blocked the main entrance to the London Stock Exchange on Thursday, gluing themselves to the doorway while wearing LED displays reading "climate emergency."

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — With pro-gun legislation largely stalled in Congress, President Donald Trump said Friday he is withdrawing the U.S. from an international agreement on the arms trade, telling the National Rifle Association the treaty is "badly misguided."

WASHINGTON (AP) — Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein is taking swipes at his critics as he prepares to leave the Justice Department, using one of his final speeches to defend his handling of the special counsel's Russia investigation and condemn decisions made before he took the job.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Americans are giving Democrats a clear edge on health care as the 2020 presidential race gears up, according to a new poll that also finds many Republicans backing one of their competitors' top ideas: a government insurance plan people can buy into.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Former Vice President Joe Biden formally joined the crowded Democratic presidential contest on Thursday, declaring the "soul of this nation" at stake if President Donald Trump wins re-election.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Attorney General William Barr skipped a House hearing Thursday on special counsel Robert Mueller's Trump-Russia report, escalating an already acrimonious battle between Democrats and President Donald Trump's Justice Department.

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